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Behaviour/development

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2 year old sensory issues/compulsive eating

1 reply

Flipflop356 · 15/03/2023 07:31

We are at a bit of a loss with what to do with our 2 year old son. To us he has always been this confident, chatty and happy little boy who is very well loved amongst all our family and friends. He has a new little sister born at the end of December and I think this has really thrown him and his behaviour. His nursery have told us that he is compulsive eating (going into other children’s lunchboxes, always hungry etc), grabbing other children’s faces and not letting go and is also quite subdued, none of which he is doing at home. They also have said that they have spotted a few sensory issues e.g. rubbing his hands on the carpet and trying to eat inedible things. This is all very unlike him and we wonder whether he might have something we need to investigate further or whether he’s just a 2 year old going through new emotions and anxieties! We really don’t want a ‘label’ unnecessarily when it will all pass eventually. We absolutely see the eating being an issue, he is obsessed with it, but we are unsure whether the face grabbing etc needs investigating. Any advice welcome please!

OP posts:
skkyelark · 17/03/2023 13:15

A tricky one. I assume nursery are aware of the arrival of his little sister? Had he been at that nursery for a good amount of time before she was born, i.e., do they have a good baseline of what he was like 'before' and 'after'? Are the staff experienced (at least some of them, obviously you expect some to be fairly junior)?

An experienced nursery staff member will have seen many, many children adjust to the arrival of a new sibling and similarly have a good sense of the range of typical behaviour for the age. If they think there's something going on, I would tend to listen – and remember that 'something' may just be 'struggling more than average to adjust to little sister', but a little temporary extra support might still be useful. I know our nursery kept a closer eye on DD1 after DD2 arrived, just a matter of course, so they could support her if she needed it. What have nursery suggested as next steps and what are they doing to manage the face grabbing?

Also, has anything changed at nursery? Has he changed room or anything like that?

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